Working on an interesting design right now, and wanted to put it out into the LJ universe to see how everyone else would approach it. The table itself is actually designed to roll up the wall similar to a garage door when you don’t need to seat as many people.

A little back story…

A co-worker saw the table on an episode of ‘Elbow Room’ a while back, and asked me if I could design something similar for her. I never actually saw the show myself, but found one picture of the table Google. I reached out to the designer from the show to ask if she could share more photos, and even though she was a super nice lady, she wasn’t able to share any thing else other than the one picture on Google.

So here’s the table…

I’d love to hear other’s opinions on my approach, and how they’d do it differently (or the same). Especially in regards to the roller assembly.

Top – each piece will be connected by a small strip of canvas sandwiched between pieces. Looks like this is how it’s done in the picture, and makes the most sense to my brain. I feel like I’ve seen sliding doors that follow curves on furniture done this way before.

Aprons – Planning to do something similar to the leaves in a dining table. Part of the apron and table will always be out to sit out, the extension will be on the inside of the fixed portion of the apron. The fixed portion of the apron will have a curve in it to lead the top up the wall when not in use.

Tracks/Runners It looks like it uses something similar to T-tracks up the wall, and I imagine also bent to follow the curves in the apron. I was thinking of cutting a slot in the apron using a router to create the guides. I’m not sure how easy it is to bend something like T-track.

Rollers – This part has me REALLY stumped. I thought about some sort of small set of bearings mounted to each table slate. I’m concerned the bearings will be kind of loud though. I have also considered just mounting metal pins on the end of each table slat to guide, but I’m also worried about longevity and friction. I’m not really very knowledgeable about bearings and small parts that would roll. This is the spot I really need help on.

So what would you do in each of these areas? Would really love to hear any and all ideas on how to solve for this one.

Thanks Jocks!

-- Steve

18 replies so far

For the top, my first thought was the same as yours to use fabric strips to connect the slats, though the first thing that came to mind for me was tie down straps or seat belt as the strength would be substantial. For the apron, if part will always be extended, you could fold the same length extension in on hinges and double the projection from the wall by simply folding the two out. Not sure if that would give you the total length from the wall you’re looking for or not. for the track, you could form the curve in the apron & up the wall as you mentioned, then offset a routed dado into the inside of the apron to form the track. For rollers, I’d make a small mini apron of sorts with individual segments on the bottom of each slat, inside of the primary apron, with enough height for each slat to carry it’s own roller or bearing into the aforementioned routed dado.

I like the idea of having a fold out extension, but it can only extend so far without an extra set of legs! I personally like the idea of using sliding aprons to support the extra table length, or even heavy duty drawer slides. Or a combination of both.

For the rollers/guides, I wouldn’t over think it. You’re not moving a ton of weight so just about anything will work. Bearings will work best, but will be the most expensive. Dowels will be the cheapest and easiest, but will have the most friction. If you want to use hardware, I would go to the blue store or the orange store and buy the guide rollers that go on top of shower doors. If you don’t want to use metal hardware for this purpose, I would use dowels and wax the heck out of them.

You asked for suggestions of how we would do it, here is my way of going about it, only as a trial and error attempt.

I wouldn’t use a curved track, but a straight roller t-track both sides up the wall panel, and I would use only one set of rollers only and would go on the front/top panel board as shown, on the other board/slats I would put wood blocks offset of the same area where the rollers would go, about an inch or better with some clearance, to act as guides which would run between wooden rails in the extended apron leaves in the horizontal plain, that way the slats would be contained in the down position from sliding sideways, but when it is folded up vertically, the guide blocks will clear the vertical t-track..

Wonder how it is to roll up, onto the wall? Almost need blind-type pull, I’d think. And the aprons waxed on top, at least, if there’s any chance of contact between them and the slats. It’d be great to see a video of the thing in action…

-- Don't anthropomorphize your handplanes. They hate it when you do that. -- OldTools Archive

Smitty, I was thinking that the slats wouldn’t touch the aprons at all, but rather the load would be carried by your dowels/bearings. But mostly I was thinking this because, at least in the photo, the aprons are painted.

Neat idea, kind of like a table over a cooler in an old Jayco pop-up camper. Picture a table 18” wide and 36” long. Now picture the outer half of the table is solid board (always out) and the inner half – towards the wall – wood slates covered top and bottom with washable vinyl. The slat portion went up the wall when the camper top was raised. Here there was about a half-inch gap between each slat where the vinyl was stitched. I hope you can picture this half-board and half-slat tabletop.

Now picture that the board half slides in a dado in the cooler box/table sideboards. Picture the underside of this table board has an apron attached to the underside of the table board and a slot down the middle of the apron. The slot rode on a simple dowel in the sideboard. It was a pop-up camper after all. In other words, the solid outer board rode in a dado when stored and was supported by the slotted apron when pulled out. In the center of the board, at the outer end was a fold-down table leg. The leg was slotted and locked with a knob and nut once extended. Like a telescope or camera tripod leg.

You pulled this table out with one hand while pushing the slats down into the dado with the other. The apron and leg now supported the outer solid board and the slats were supported in the dado. To close up the table, you pulled the slats up into a dado in the wall board sides while pushing the solid board in. The wall sideboard was thinner at the bottom – a distance of slightly more than the width of a slat. Where the sideboard got thicker is where the dado started. This gave room for the slats to be free and could be guided into the dado either way. Sure wish I had pictures of that old camper.

This wasn’t fancy. No bearings or rollers. But, like I said it was a pop-up camper. I hope you can kind of picture this and hope it helps give you ideas. Best of luck. Keep us posted.

-- Life is what happens to you while you are planning better things -Mark Twain

Dan, I’d suggest the ‘aprons’ on the wall (painted) are more like a frame. The aprons of the actual table surface would take load. Think of elbows-on-the-table, pushing-table-to-get-up use and that’s where I though the top should come in contact with the apron of the table.

That said, you make a good point. What will the frame on the wall look like over time?

So much of what’s built on those shows that are custom pieces aren’t made for the long-haul, but are Ikea-like in design over durability. Assumption is you’re gonna tear out this table in a year or two, when styles change or you move into another apartment.

The act of sliding six or eight or ten boards up a wall is gonna be tough. Looking forward to your mock-ups, Steve.

-- Don't anthropomorphize your handplanes. They hate it when you do that. -- OldTools Archive

Another thought would be to add a counter balancer as the part going up the wall could get heavy the farther it’s pushed, especially if you’re making it from a dense wood. A couple old sash weight could do the trick, but then you’d need a way to lock it in place when it was pulled completely down.

Smitty – you make a great point about the things on those shows not being built for the long haul.

I wasn’t sure about the aprons bearing the load or the runners, but I think you’re right, with the normal weight/wear and tear on a table they would almost have to rest on the top of the apron. I was thinking along the same lines as Dan, so your point is really well taken.

The counter balance idea is really cool to assist with it going up and down the wall Yeti. I think you could actually make them into a cool design element if you got some old looking weights.

Going to do some sketching this weekend to see what I can come up with.

Keep the thoughts and ideas coming folks. Any design issues/ideas you have are appreciated. I’ve already gotten a ton of great input from this thread.

looking at the picture again, it looks like only the first few slats are cut and the rest of the top, or at least the middle portion, is solid.

Was just thinking that cleaning this thing would be a pain in the butt…if you get crums and junk down in between the slats. Plus, you’d have to be careful how wet you got the top wiping it down, otherwise the canvas in between slats might get ruined.